‘Orange Is the New Black’ Gets a Season 6 Premiere Date and First Teaser

It’s rare for June to arrive without a new season of Orange Is the New Black. For the past few years I’ve pretty much equated the start of summer with a return to Litchfield. What’s Pride month without a new season of Orange (often followed by the cast making their annual appearances as the NYC Pride parade)? The sixth season of the Jenji Kohan dramedy was slightly pushed back and we’ve been waiting to find out when, exactly, it would return.

Today Netflix finally answered that question. The ladies of Litchfield will be back on July 27 for a sixth season. They also dropped the very first teaser, a short but ominous 20 second clip. The camera pans across the destroyed cafeteria, covered in plumes of orange smoke grenades before you hear Taylor Schilling’s Piper say, “This is a whole new world.” There’s also a few fun Easter eggs buried in the clip. Spot the legendary chicken, Blanca’s (Laura Gomez) flip phone, and a slice of pie Crazy Eyes (Uzo Aduba) has yet to throw.

While details have remained under wraps about the new season, this new announcement comes with a few clues for what’s next. Peep the tweet above, which says “Bye bye, Litch.” That’s pretty much confirmation the show will take us elsewhere this year.

As you’ll remember, last year’s 13-hour-long “bottle episode” season ended with a bunch of the inmates rounded up onto buses as Piper and Alex (newly engaged), along with Taystee, Gloria, Crazy Eyes, Blanca and others took over the prison. But that shot of the correctional facility bus leaving Litchfield in the teaser, and the season tagline “To the max,” suggests the ladies are on their way to Max, aka the maximum security prison down the road. Things are definitely going to get even messier.